Please do notice!
by klare
Summary: A mobile phone witnessing a cruel murder...
1. Early to rise

At 4:33 a.m. The mobile phone starts to ring. The sharp sound cuts the silence in the appartement and joins the patter of water on the shower curtain. Mac turns his head towards the new noise, turns off the shower and shakes the drops out of his short hair. Wrapped a towel round his hips, he steps into the sleeping room and picks up the mobile. „Mac Taylor?" He starts to dress. „Hi Mac", the familiar voice of Don Flack is heard on the other end of the line. „Sorry to disturb you that early – or that late, depending – but we got something for you here." „It's alright", Mac answers and puts on his furbished black shoes – old marine habits never die. „Where?" „Second block from the corner 10th and 23rd west." Mac closes the door of his appartement. „Arriving in 10 minutes." „See you."

Precisely 8 minutes later Mac gets of his car at the corner 10th and 23rd west and walks the two blocks down the street to the point, where – despite the early hour of the day - a lot of curious stand around. Discontented he pushes himself through the gawking crowd towards the well- known yellow band, which is just beeing drawn by the patrolman of the NYPD round the discovery location of the dead.

Stella looks up while Mac liftens the yellow band and bends down under it. Accompanied by Sheldon, she has already started to inspect the body; now she gets up from her squattering position to welcome him. „You look tired, Stella." „I wish you a very pleasant morning, too, Mac." Every inattentive observant would have missed the little indication of a smile on Mac's lips. Both of them approximate the corpse, a well- rehearsed team needs no long explanations. Sheldon too greets Mac with a little nod of his head and a smile and gets back to his work. After marking the puncture carefully, he pushes the sensor of the temperature mesuring instrument in the liver of the dead. Don steps towards Stella and Mac. „White, female, aged between 17 and 25." he reads out his notes. „The janitor of the house over there found her when taking the garbage out – aroung an hour ago. He first thought of a drunk, he told me. If you are asking, the one who is thinking about drunks facing this scenery, must be as drunk as a newt himself." Mac raises his eyebrows. „Drunk as a newt? Tell me, who have you been hanging around with lately?" Flack is just opening his mouth th respond, when Stella raises her hand. „Do you hear that?"

Sheldon puts the sensor down and turns over the dead body carefully. From the hip pocket of her jeans he takes out a mobile phone, twinkling and gently beeping. „You mean that?" he asks Stella, who nods and reaches out for the mobile phone. „Temperature is 86 degree Fahrenheit, she must be dead for at least 10 hours." Expectant, the young Csi is looking up to Mac, who his turn is watching Stella opening the still beeping mobile. „Mac, you should have a look at this.", saying this the curly blonde is showing her hand to her friend and boss. At the display of the black mobile phone the two of them are looking at the self- opening memo, beeing creator of the beeping: „Date: 25. 01. 2009, Time: 3:05 a.m. Text: Please do notice: I did this."


	2. Locally carved

Mac and Stella look at each other. „Looks like a confession to me, Mac." Reflexion knitters Mac's brow. „You can change the text, but not the date and time of memos with this kind of mobile phones. She", his right hand points towards the dead body, where Sheldon and newly- arrived Danny continue their work „was not able to write the note at that time. Therefore, there are two possibilities left." „The one is, that the murderer returned to the place of his action and left the message, for what reason ever, and second, somebody performing a very tasteless joke." Both nod to one another and are just going to go back to work, when Flack arrives and pulls out his mobile. „The dead person is named Cora McNillon, aged 24, ex- navy soldier, has been reported missing by her sister ten minutes ago." „If she is a navy soldier, we will have to hand over her case to the NCIS", Stella thinks aloud. „If you listen to me just once, Stella", Flack answers, acting like in total despair. „She has been dismissed in honour with two fellow marines two weeks ago." „So she is still our business", Mac sums up and goes for the camera.

Tiredly, Danny winces at every flash of the camera. Mac paces up and down the crime scene in his usual manner and notes meticulously each and every small detail. But there is nothing more to note instead of the dead body of the young woman, where is plenty. The girl is laying on her back, the brown eyes wide open, staring at the dawning sky without seeing anything. Her brown hair frames her face like a dark stormy cloud. The pretty, regular face shows no feeling, like made from stone. Though her face is undeniable beautiful, one can hardly take off his eyes from her body, where everybody can see the reason for her death. A clean, totally straight cut runs from the right shoulder of the victim crossing chest and belly to her left hip. Clothing and skin are cut simultaniously; on the ground of the cut one can see the inner organs. The black top and the dark trousers are soaked with blood and other liquids, they are attached to the body like a second skin. More evidences can not be spotted at the crime scene; it looks as if the murder had taken place otherwhere. Mac and Stella, ducked looking in a circle round the corpse, are unanimous. As Mac beckons them, Sheldon and Danny approach the dead and get it into the body bag, while Stella slips the mobile phone into an evidence bag and head for her car.

At the morgue, Sid welcomes Mac and Stella, his thin armes wide open. „I'll have to reassess my mind at the clean and fast way of killing of our troups." he sounds off instead of saying hello. „Whereupon, the cut went fast, surely, but clean, that can be discussed." „I hope in your own interest, that the murderer is not a navy soldier, Sid", Stella replies. Because if he is, you will have to give way to your navy fellows for a very long time. The navy men work slowly, but thouroughly." „Tough I would be pleased to see the famous marine's killing snatch live, just for forensic reasons, of course." „If the two of you do not stop blabbering and start working instantly, you will be able to feel the killing snatch live by now", Mac snarls, „and you can share one table right here!" Sid spots the CSI director unimpressed. „It would be pity about our friendship, and you would be surly pity not to know what I know. Our pitiable young friend holds an extraordinary secret, I think." „Go ahead, Sid." „Patience as a virtue has been getting out of style lately, has it? Well, the two of you know the proverb: The feather is more powerful than the sword, do you? Well if this fits in our contexte here, the feather scene from „Forrest Gump" would be unthinkable, because this feather would have fallen from the sky like Icarus, we are talking of heavy swordnance." Blank, Mac and Stella look at each other. „Just tell me, you do not know this movie? A masterpiece of movie history, a classic, still one of my favorite movies, though the SAW series is about to take his place..." Mac raises his hand, threatening. „One more word, Sid, and I..." „So, you are coming here only if you want me something to do. You could come here just to talk, but... all right. As I already told you, death did arrive instantly after the hurt was inflicted. Death was caused by the loss of blood from the cut abdomic aorta, leading to death in a few seconds. The cut must have been inflicted by a very sharp instrument, what lead me to an ax – or a sword. Blood for the toxic analyses was given away this moment, and I can not tell you any more. I made an electronic replica of the cut, Danny and Adam are working on it right now." „Thank you, Sid, that's enough for the moment. Stella, go to Sheldon and help him analyze the mobile phone I have still something to deal with." After these words both leave the coroner and the morgue.

At hte crime lab, Sheldon is busy to protect the fingerprints of the mobile phone found by the dead. He barely rises his head from his work, as Stella enters the room. „There are fingerprints of at least seven different people here, including the victim. The mobile seems to has got about a lot." „Did you already check the adress memory?" „No, I wanted to leave this to you." „Very nice of you." When Stella opens the mobile, the signal: New message pops up. „Scary, ain't it?" Sheldon reckons, while looking over her shoulder. „As if it knew, what we're about to do." Stella shakes her head, smiling. „Just a coincidence." „Don't tell Mac" Sheldon replies, also smiling, as the door opens behind them. „What better not tell me?" Mac enters the room. He looks at the phone in Stella's hand. „New murderer message?" „A new message, at least. Stella pushes „Open message", and all the three of them read the text at the same time:

„Hi, if you read this message, you are the one who has found my mobile. Please give it back to me, I will pay you its worth in money. This mobile does not mean anything to you, to me it means life. Please do contact me. Emily."

„Life is relativ, don't you think?", Sheldon murmurs through the emerged silence.


End file.
